Biography

Konstantin Nikolsky (Russian: Константин Никольский; 1 February 1951, Moscow) is a Russian guitarist and songwriter. He has played with a lot of Russian bands, including Voskresenie and Tsvety.

He started back as an amateur in the late sixites with Moscow band Atlants with Sikorsky. He worked in official bands during the 70s, most notably a guitarist for Stas Namin’s ‘band Tsvety, and Festival. Working for Festival he wrote songs for films.

In the summer of 1981 he joined the band Voskresenie as a songwriter and guitarist. Writing hit songs such as “О чем поет ночная птица” (“What the Night Bird Sings About”) and “Зеркало мира” (“Mirror of the World”), the band shot to fame, and these songs became instant classics.

He recorded only one album with Voskresenie: “Voskresenie 2”. It was recorded in a basement of an old office over three days, and is perhaps the most well known album from them.

In 1983 he left Voskresenie and joined back with Festival.

After finishing the Gnesini school of guitar music in 1984, Nikolsky left Festival and formed his own musical group named Zerkalo Mira. The band disbanded three years later, shortly after taking part in the big concert “Rock Panorama”, playing alongside bands like Bravo and Rondo. They did not record any albums.

After the breakup of Zerkalo Mira, Nikolsky was joined by pianist M. Shevtsov and guitarist A. Berezovsky, and he started work on his solo project. He moves towards a calm acoustical style that fits his musical material perfectly. In 1990 his band was joined by bass guitarist and friend A. Kuzmichev and drummer U. Kostikov.

Eventually he recorded his first solo album in 1991 and he began touring immedialty afterward. Playing songs from this album. The band was asked to play live on hit Russian TV shows such as “Live water”, “Rock-n-roll TV” and “Program A”.

The band’s listeners are from a wide spectrum, the young people who can relate to Nikosky’s songs, and the older folks who know Nikolsky from his work with Voskresenie.